Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh expanded his government by inducting nine new ministers at a ceremony held at the Raj Bhawan on Saturday. All the newly inducted ministers are first-timers. They were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor VP Singh Badnore at a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhawan. Two women ministers - Aruna Chaudhary and Razia Sultana -were also elevated to cabinet rank.
The newly inducted ministers are OP Soni, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Gurpreet Kangar, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Vijay Inder Singla, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Sunder Sham Arora. The Chief Minister also took to Twitter to welcome the new ministers and shared a picture of them after the oath ceremony. However, the cabinet expansion has left several hopefuls in the ruling party sulking. Some of them have even offered to resign from Congress party posts to show their resentment.
Youth Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Kuljit Singh Nagra, former Olympian Pargat Singh and Dalit leader Raj Kumar Verka were among the strong contenders who were left out in the cabinet expansion. Congress legislators Sangat Singh Gilzian, Surjit Dhiman and Nathu Ram resigned from party posts after the list of new ministers was announced. After a slew of resignations, senior party leaders, including Congress party in-charge for Punjab Asha Kumari, held talks with some of the disgruntled legislators to pacify them.
The names of new ministers were approved by the Congress high command following two days of meetings between Amarinder Singh and Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders. The Congress won the Assembly elections in March last year, getting 77 legislators in the 117-member Assembly. The state cabinet can have a maximum strength of 18 ministers, including the Chief Minister, under the law.
